Part 33 (1/2)

He thought to see the mistress of the menagerie, but she was no longer in her curtained box. He went out on the deserted platform, and down the steps. Abdiel was already at the foot when he reached it, wagging his weary little tail.

They set out to look for a shelter. Their search, however, was so much in vain, that at last they returned and lay down under one of the wagons, on the hard ground of the public square. Sleeping so often out of doors, he had never yet taken cold.

Chapter XLVI.

The angel of the wild beasts.

When Clare looked up he saw nothing between him and the sky. They had dragged the caravan from above him, and he had not moved. Abdiel indeed waked at the first pull, but had lain as still as a mouse--ready to rouse his master, but not an instant before it should be necessary.

Clare saw the sky, but he saw something else over him, better than the sky--the face of Mrs. Halliwell, the mistress of the menagerie. In it, as she stood looking down on him, was compa.s.sion, mingled with self-reproach.

Clare jumped up, saying, ”Good morning, ma'am!” He was yet but half awake, and staggered with sleep.

”My poor boy!” answered the woman, ”I sent you to sleep on the cold earth, with a sovereign of your own in my pocket! I made sure you would come and ask me for it! You're too innocent to go about the world without a mother!”

She turned her face away.

”But, ma'am, you know I couldn't have offered it to anybody,” said Clare. ”It wasn't good!--Besides, before I knew that,” he went on, finding she did not reply, ”there was n.o.body but you I dared offer it to: they would have said I stole it--because I'm so shabby!” he added, looking down at his rags. ”But it ain't in the clothes, ma'am--is it?”

Getting the better of her feelings for a moment, she turned her face and said,--

”It was all my fault! The sov. is a good one. It's only cracked! I ought to have known, and changed it for you. Then all would have been well!”

”I don't think it would have made any difference, ma'am. We would rather sleep on the ground than in a bed that mightn't be clean--wouldn't we, Abby?” The dog gave a short little bark, as he always did when his master addressed him by his name.--”But I'm so glad!” Clare went on. ”I was sure Mr. Goodenough thought the sovereign all right when he gave it me!--Were you ever disappointed in a sovereign, ma'am?”

”I been oftener disappointed in them as owed 'em!” she answered. ”But to think o' me snug in bed, an' you sleepin' out i' the dark night! I can't abide the thought on it!”

”Don't let it trouble you, ma'am; we're used to it. Ain't we, Abby?”

”Then you oughtn't to be! and, please G.o.d, you shall be no more! But come along and have your breakfast We don't start till the last.”

”Please, ma'am, may Abdiel come too?”

”In course! 'Love me, love my dog!' Ain't that right?”

”Yes, ma'am; but some people like dogs worse than boys.”

”A good deal depends on the dog. When folk brings up their dogs as bad as they do their childern, I want neither about me. But your dog's a well-behaved dog. Still, he must learn not to come in sight o' the animals.”

”He will learn, ma'am!--Abdiel, lie down, and don't come till I call you.”

At the word, the dog dropped, and lay.

The house-caravan stood a little way off, drawn aside when they began to break up. They ascended its steps behind, and entered an enchanting little room. It had muslin curtains to the windows, and a small stove in which you could see the bright red coals. On the stove stood a coffee-pot and a covered dish. How nice and warm the place felt, after the nearly shelterless night!

The breakfast-things were still on the table. Mr. Halliwell had had his breakfast, but Mrs. Halliwell would not eat until she had found the boy. She had been unhappy about him all the night. Her husband had a.s.sured her the sovereign was a good one, and the boy had told her he had no money but the sovereign! She little knew how seldom he fared better than that same night! When he got among hay or straw, that was luxury.

They sat down to breakfast, and the good woman was very soon confirmed in the notion that the boy was a gentleman.